Congestion pricing to be determined today

Thursday

Jan 31, 2008 at 10:29 AMJan 31, 2008 at 10:30 AM

The Associated Press

NEW YORK – A plan to charge drivers for entering the most traffic-choked part of Manhattan looked likely to get an endorsement this afternoon from a panel weighing options for thinning the city’s traffic.

But the proposal’s ultimate prospects weren’t clear. It would ultimately need City Council and state Legislature approval. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been championing the concept, known as congestion pricing, but it faces heavy opposition from many drivers and some elected officials.

The Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission – a group set up to study the fee idea and other options for reducing traffic – was scheduled to vote Thursday on its recommendation.

The New York Times reported last week that eight of the commission’s 17 members said the panel would probably recommend a less sweeping version of Bloomberg’s initial proposal, which called for charging cars $8 and trucks $21 to drive into Manhattan below 86th Street on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The commission was likely to shift the cutoff to 60th Street and nix charges for trips within the fee zone, according to the Times. An estimated nearly $500 million a year in proceeds would go to improving mass transportation.

“Were we not to get congestion pricing, it would have a dramatic effect on our ability to expand and modernize our system,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority Executive Director Elliot Sander said Thursday, the New York Post reported. The MTA runs city subways and public buses, the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Railroad, the Long Island Bus system and several bridges and tunnels.